Started as 2 hour installation but progressed to worldwide movement. With much more than just a park – lots of installation types: repair, clinic etc. All based on specific community needs. Documentation via photographs – they want not only end product – but the progress photographs. They even have a manual and manifesto to download, even a press kit! http://parkingday.org/2014-parking-day-map-2/

Mapping via Google Maps – explore this for chalk my rideMaybe create chalk station and hand out chalk at next Auckland

Park(ing) Day ? Is there 2015 – not on website?

Have signed up and waiting for approval to create Auckland Group.

I like their spirit – sense of community and resourcing to empower people to activate their own local networks.

Interesting the dumpster works Oliver Bishop-Young – Skip Waste – simply filling with goodness instead of rubbish. Bins end up on the street for days on end filled with trash – who says that they can’t be filled with other stuff? Really like the provision of an urban oasis for insects and so on – why should bees get all the plush pads? Great combo of dumpster and natural/provisional materials. http://www.oliverbishopyoung.co.uk/?portfolio=lauameier-sculpture-park

Need to re-re-visit Kelmarna Gardens and talk Adrian about how things work there now.

New doe not come from somewhere else – but rather comes from here – the world we live it the place that we are – and indeed – who we are. The new is not making it up from scratch – it is a recombining of what is here already. It is a duplicate of what is here – but with a change or difference.

Fashion is could be a direct repetition with minor modifications, but art is a massive and profound reassembling of the existing. So fashion is like the opposite of art.

Finding the new means to move out of a certain plane of existence i.e. move into a different space from before, not just horizontally – i.e. not just like on a map, but perhaps to move deeper i.e. uncover layers to find the relief hiding under the smooth.

Bergson, says that this other place is not actually here in our present place as such, but rather in another time, on a ‘temporal axis’ – or ‘pure-past’ a realm of pure potentiality. This can only take place when there is a fissure or schism created between stimulus and response.

A rupture – as intimated in Art of the possible : Fulvia Carnevale and John Kelsey in conversation with Jacques Ranciere, that play is fundamental to creating the rupture required to ‘thwart expectations’. Breaking the sensory-motor mechanism which holds all the habits of a lifetime.

With the new comes the surprise or gap – that allows for hesitation in response – an opportunity for a reformulation and synthesis of idea. But this reformulation doesn’t happen instantly – a duration and movement is required – time and space to digest if you will.

Not just a recombination – more of movement into a different realm and then back again – with the journey being an important part of the reconfiguration. A changing of habit, and a change from just considering the usefulness of the thing. This allows for a new future to emerge.

Spinoza specified three forms of knowledge:

General condition of being in the world – our worldly encounters are random and we are a product of these encounters

As result of effort placed on understanding and categorising these encounters – we consciously start to comprehend and arrange our lives. An ethical life involves recombining to increase happiness and joy. Advanced capitalism = news + sadness/paralysis and commodities + happiness/insulation. Creativity is the production of joyful encounters through experimentation and resulting creating of common notions – or universal thoughts through the creative process. This is ‘blueprint for a genuinely creative life’ that is rooted in the discovery of the genesis of experience.

Everything agrees, and produces joy with that agreement. Instead of the world being the causation of you, you become the causation of yourself and your acting into the world. Not actually knowledge per se – rather a place of being. A place of eternality like Bergson’s pure past. Being still is still moving.

Foucault calls a kind of knowledge; the truth. Not able to be communicated – but rather a state of being – as above – and ‘involves a transformation of given subjectivity’. I.e. making a change to what is presumed as an individual. Truth is traditionally linked with proof and knowledge. And so, knowledge, as science or as the humanities might see it, is really just a result of ‘evidence’ already verified, against a backdrop of ever horded, and increasing, knowledge. This knowledge is filling an empty vessel, which is us, and we are really never satiated. This knowledge is really a building, or collecting, of compounding evidence, rather than a challenge on what is thought to be known. Foucault compares traditional of knowledge/truth vs the tradition of ‘care of the self’.

Care of the self is where the production of subjectivity is the cause and effect of truth – where truth is an experience, rather than a viewing of evidence. This cause and effect, this experimental way of being with the truth in the self, is produced via a ‘certain orientation/intention’ via ‘specific technologies’, could be called a ‘ethico-aesthetic’ programme.

One cannot read and learn, one needs to practice to find this state of truth via an emergence. It is not to be discovered in academia, rather it is lived into via practice. Instead of looking for new, it about is becoming something different.

This is not a seeking of knowledge, and it will look suspect from a scientific/humanities point of view as it is so introspective and subjective in nature. Similarly considering medication and funding for expanded and de-territorialised practices.

Reference:

O’Sullivan, S, The production of the new and the care of the self. From: Deleuze, Guattari and the production of the new (O’Sullivan, S., and Zepke, S. eds.); ch. 9. Publisher: London ; New York : Continuum. Date: 2008.

Auckland doesn’t have enough dedicated cycleways. Sometimes, I get scared on the riding on the road. And being scared is the number one reason people don’t cycle. Having to contend for space on the road with traffic is scary!

So, I wanted to create some significance around that, i.e. perform an action around that.

Chalk has a long history as a wonderful method of marking, and can be used to mark just about anything, anywhere.

I went on a ride around Auckland City – essentially a simple and intuitive ring route from Kingsland, where I live, up to K’Road, over to Symonds Street, down to Anzac Ave, along to Customs Street, down towards the Waterfront and along the Waterfront to Curran Street -where the battery ran out on my camera. I finished the ride off to the end of Ponsonby Road and headed towards home along Great North Road.

Each time I felt scared, and/or the road made an insufficient allowance for riding safely, I threw some chalk on the road. And naturally got some on myself and my bike. But it was fun!

I wonder what the motorists must have thought… Maybe to alight any fears, I should have worn a sign that said: ‘Chalk!’

We currently operate under the yoke of chronically inefficient and terrible transport system that undermines our true potential as the economic powerhouse of New Zealand. The woes of transport are felt by many, directly by the hours caught in an inefficient transport system, to those indirectly caught up in the dead weight through lost economic, cultural and environmental opportunities.

It is my view that Auckland City, under the stewardship of Auckland Council and Auckland Transport, an Auckland Council Owned Organisation, is lacking vision and is poorly managed. This is not only from a leadership point of view, but a lack of real understanding of what is directly eroding our quality of life.

Auckland is a beautiful place, however its beauty is being marred by the extensive roading programmes that simply get people from point A to point B. Chronically less and less efficiently, and at a higher and higher cost to the ratepayer, who in turn demands higher rent from our increasing numbers of rent-for-life tenants.

There are proposals to increase our spend on rail, and such. But, do you know what the real cost per individual is to take the train? I couldn’t believe it myself when I read a recent – let’s crunch the numbers study, as below. Buses are better, but not exempt..

I believe people are too reliant on the current systems to provide what they need and want. We need efficiency. We need space. We need clean air. And most of all, we need as much time with our families as possible. The grind of work is hard enough, we don’t need a daily prison to, and from, work to exacerbate our suffering. We don’t need our precious, and certainly squandered, time to be wasted looking at the back of someone else’s head or indeed – cage – sorry I meant car!

Our population problems are not going to get better. We are forecast to experience more urban-ward migration, both from overseas people looking for a new home, and from New Zealanders streaming into Auckland also looking for a better life. Christchurch is ailing from a terrible catastrophe, suggest; mostly out of sight out of mind for most Aucklanders, but have you noticed how many people say they are from Christchurch? I believe I have at least 3 friends in Auckland, from Christchurch, who are refugees in their own country.

Certainly, our central city population is bulging, and let’s be honest, we don’t have the central city space that we need. We are hemmed in by sea and suburb. We are building up and up. Our old buildings are being razed, sometimes with great loss to our heritage. This is happening as quickly as as they are being poorly designed, and subsequently built.

Thus, our streets are getting tighter and tighter. Everybody is sharing space, and of course this includes sharing with our spacing gobbling precious vehicles and their prime position car parks.

We need a plan to sort these issues, and I believe that the plan below would go along way to helping us to help ourselves, I propose we consider the following, as items to consider, to be implemented together, as a holistic solution:

In combination with evidence from other cities, like and unlike ours, I humbly offer some suggestions and notes:

AK 2020 = Cyclist’s City

Wouldn’t it be great if 50% of our journeys around our central city precinct were done via cycle and public transport, and around the central city a full 100%?

Well this can happen if:We remove cars from the central city,and replace our roads with shared spaces for pedestrians and cyclists.

At least, let’s allocate from Customs St – the bottom of Queen Street to Mayoral Drive as allocated to cyclists and pedestrians, and perhaps even trams like in recent, NZ Herald Article – Little room for cars in Auckland tram plan By Mathew Dearnaleyhttp://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11426637The extent of the allocation is also examined in:

DENSIFY | Optimize density and transit capacity

COMPACT | Create regions with short commutes

SHIFT | Increase mobility by regulating parking and road use

We all know about the wonders that cycling and exercise can do for one’s health. Let’s not advocate the health benefits any more. We know. We know.

We know, that we should be doing it, but what stops us?

Well, it only requires a few stints on Auckland’s roads, to convince the most zealous of us, that cycling is a very dangerous concern. Around much of Auckland, we share our cycle lanes with buses, whom I am sure find cyclists a nuisance. Where there are no lanes, cyclists have to contend with hell-bent motorists grasping at every gap they can to reduce the time spent in the car. Which leads us to our next consideration.

Well it would, because they wouldn’t be able to make physical contact. It’s that simple. It’s a bit like two children fighting – the best thing to do is to separate them.

Ok enough with the negative, let’s think about how wonderful it would be to be able to get on your bike, and take it directly and safely, to where you want to go, all without the noise, smoke and streaming bulging eyes. How about it, in the quiet, clean and relaxed manner you deserve?

Dedicated, direct and protected; beautifully planted and wonderful art-feature appointed cycleways, could do this.

It would be an opportunity for business to service those who can actually stop, without breaking a sweat for a park.

RR-530-Reallocation-of-road-space – well worth a peruse if you are looking for some good two-am-can’t-get-to-sleep-reading.
As CityLab states:
This suggests that, in many cases, the benefit of encouraging more sustainable transport journeys to shopping centres outweighs the cost of reallocating space and improving the urban design in shopping centres.

Find me a retailer that wouldn’t jump all over three times as much revenue.

Seems critical, while the good old high streets, are being sucked up by the huge homogeneous malls. Our fair city just hasn’t got the connectedness that is needs – far too many routes that drop away. There is a sense that – when it’s too hard for the designers, cyclists just have to make do with taking the hard road instead.

Cycle > Ride > Cycle >

Whilst I believe that using the bus or the train is great – (Public Transport Heros: Let’s Go!) There is a massive subsidised cost to the city. Let’s keep the public transport running, AND let’s fully subsidised those who cycle to the hubs. And charge appropriately those who don’t, i.e. those who choose to drive through their suburbs. It seems ludicrous to operate suburban based Park and Ride systems, when all we get are just minor exterior hub gridlocks instead of our good old fashion centralised gridlocks.

After reading that, and the following documents, showing the proposed cost of railway upgrades and considering the state of the cities finances, I think having rail as our top priority is simply misguidedness, followed by poor financial analysis. And it’s not like rail ever cut the heart out of communities. Slum dwellers beware.

This Draft City Centre Transport Position Paper – states the key transport issues facing the City Centre.Agenda item 9(ii) – Closed- Draft City Centre Transport Position Paper – Attachment 1States:
Cycling – safe city
A high quality and connected cycle network will enable cycling to provide a significant proportion of short trips around and to the city centre. More bike parking, lower speed limits and targeted on-road facilities, along with high quality off-road paths on some corridors, will make cycling on city streets safer and more attractive.
There are several key cycling connections which will help unlock the latent demand for city centre cycling, including a Harbour Bridge cycleway and completion of the CMJ cycleway currently under development by NZTA. A central city low speed zone on key streets will allow not just for the safer mixing of cyclists and vehicles, but also assist with pedestrian safety.
This needs to take Centre stage in our Central City. It is understood on a national level with the lion’s share of the budget for Urban cycleways going to Auckland – but Auckland City doesn’t seem to get it.QandA-Urban-Cyclewayscycle-network-and-route-planning

Bike Costs Subsidised

Let’s introduce cycle purchase, maintenance and rental subsidies.

Let’s raise money via a stop-spend on other massive redevelopment projects for 5 years. We can reassess once the cycle programme has time to take hold. Amazingly current spend on cycling of $30mill per year is only 3% of proposed total transport budget at over a billion dollars ($1,000,000,000)! Let’s take half and spend it on ourselves, our families and our communities – not deadening roads and our boring cars.Auckland triples spend on cycling – ProQuest
Let’s place prohibitive levies on private and business parking in high density areas. We could increase the petrol levy and add motorway tolls during the day. User pays (double).

Leave the rate-payer out of it. All that does is put even more pressure on upward rents – totally undermining the social good.

Everyone & Family

Every abled body cycles. Or at least is given every opportunity and incentive to do so.

All demographic and social sectors enabled and encouraged to participate. All family members at all ages, are encouraged to take part. Cycle participation and safety part of school, university and work programmes.

ASB Community Trust published a summary of findings regarding Social and priorities for Auckland1_social_issues4b

This study by Ipsos Ltd provides all the data one would ever want to wave a stick at: AT-Active-Modes-Research-Report-2014 It holds a wealth of information about cycling and perceptions in Auckland, such as:

>> It is not safe to cycle on Auckland’s roads because of how people drive
>> I would not feel safe cycling in the dark
>> There are not enough cycle lanes that are physically separated from other traffic

Why are the cycling options not expanded upon? It seems as though the creator of this had initial insight, but didn’t expand on the vision for the future of Auckland’s wonderful possibilities via cycling.

Inter-mode Harmony

Let’s make it easy to be nice to each other.

Our problem is not so much as to how people drive around cyclists, it’s that they are sharing the same space in the first place, that is the problem. Separated and dedicated to individual modes, as much as possible, calm the roads and prioritise push power.For more inspiration have a look at Jane Jacobs: Neighbourhoods in Action:

This has an amazing generosity of self, plus a sincere sense of conviction and concern around political issues. Hayes is publicly announcing her deepest intimate thoughts and feelings along side her heart felt political and public convictions. Blurring the lines between public and private. She has made pillow talk of the public issues of the day. Further reading: http://artpulsemagazine.com/sharon-hayes-love-is-just-a-battle-away – futher explains how she is able to cross political divides and to humanise each other to ourselves.

Interesting quote from this video – “Everybody needs networks with other people, it’s impossible to make community without networks.” This cuts right to the heart of the matter – what do our communities need? To be connected.

Neighbourhoods, like people have a heart, we need to be fully connected to enable a healthy life in body and spirit.

What makes people feel valued? They don’t want to be seen as lesser or “other”. This doesn’t happen by magic. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. In the case, of the auto-dependant city this is quite literally the case. Plan to help and create a meaningful difference to the community. Calm the roads, provide features of cultural significance. That makes a difference.

The average American walks only 400 years a day – this is simply not enough. Get busy making the roads acceptable for walking, cycling and thus community. Auto-dependence and unbridled roading cuts through community. Stop the dependence of isolating and statis producing cars. Disconnected drivers make for daily selfish and hurtful decisions. Death of community by a thousand near misses.

Condemning areas as lesser or slum creates the justification to build through areas populated by people of lower socioeconomic standing – we need rather to provide all communities with what they need – to be connected to each other – street by street, corner by corner. Whether by great walk and cycleways, or well appointed humanistic and culturally sensitive community hubs. Definitely not to simply road through with reckless abandon, to connect far away point B with even further way point A.